Corn is a new world crop, along with tomatoes, potatoes, and cashews. Over 9 thousand years ago, indigenous people in southwestern Mexica began cultivating a wild grass, teosinte, with a cob about the size of your little finger and a dozen or so hard grains. After four or five thousand years, the plant had been propagated and selected into what we call corn or maize, all thought to have occurred in the origin area. But cobs found in rock cave in Honduras and others from South America, dating back some 4000 years, showed different D N A which contributed to the viable crop of maize. So rudimentary corn began in Mexico, was taken to other locations, then when returned to Mexico, and became a nutritious crop that today is one of the staple foods that feeds the world.
A history of corn
